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architecture and design magazineTue, 31 Mar 2015 18:04:48 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1Driverless cars in cities still "20 to 30 years" away, says senior Audi engineerhttp://www.dezeen.com/2014/12/19/audi-engineer-thomas-muller-interview-concept-rs-7-driverless-car-cities-years-away/
http://www.dezeen.com/2014/12/19/audi-engineer-thomas-muller-interview-concept-rs-7-driverless-car-cities-years-away/#commentsFri, 19 Dec 2014 17:00:16 +0000http://admin.dezeen.com/?p=612424News: autonomous vehicles in urban areas could be up to thirty years away, according to Audi's Thomas Müller, the engineer leading the development of the brand's driverless sports car (+ interview). Despite the hype about driverless vehicles, Müller said it would "take 20 to 30 years" before they could co-exist with existing vehicles in cities. "People driving old cars […]

Müller was speaking to Dezeen during the first public passenger event for Audi's two Concept RS 7 cars, which can drive themselves around a racetrack at speeds of up to 220 kilometres per hour.

The cars use a combination of military-grade GPS, images captured by an array of cameras, which the car compares to a bank of images previously captured on the same stretch of road, and a "path finding" algorithm to help plot the best route for each lap.

Müller said that off-road driving would be "difficult" to achieve, as autonomous vehicle technologies rely on recognition of road lights, markings and signage to determine the car's position on the road.

Audi's concept RS 7 driverless car

"You have to make it recognise what is a street, what is not a street, and gravel and mud," said Müller. "This is something that in the technical environment – self-learning machines – is still at the beginning."

"It's an evolutionary approach," said Müller. "It's not going to be that next Monday everything is there and is working, because technology needs to be developed, regulation needs to be developed, infrastructure needs to be developed."

"And the most important thing is the customer. My wife wouldn't get in a car that doesn't have anything. She doesn't trust it. You need to take the customer on that journey with you," he said.

Audi said it currently has no plans to sell driverless cars, but the technology it is developing will be used to offer drivers "piloted" options and to create new safety features.

Müller said these would allow drivers to hand over the boring aspects of their journey to the car, such as traffic jams and parking.

"We're not following a strategy of having – some people call it robotaxi – this car driving empty through the city looking for customers. This is not our strategic goal," said Müller.

"Driving pleasure issues – this is something that we focus on. And on top of that comes driver assistance systems, piloted driving, which are the functionalities where we say we want to help the driver – to avoid accidents."

Design studio Kram/Weisshaar worked with Audi for the first passenger trips of the RS 7 driverless concept cars, designing an in-car film studio to capture passenger reactions. The car brand is also working with architects to identify areas where driverless technologies can have an impact on urban planning.

"The logic in that is to try to understand the urban mobility of tomorrow. Which includes, of course, the streets, but it also includes the parking areas. And to find out where we can generate some value," said Müller.

"If you could just drop your car at the entrance of a parking place and it just gets in and you pack all the cars together without any streets in-between, you would reduce the area, which I think is a great thing."

Read the edited transcript of our interview with Thomas Müller:

Anna Winston: You've been working on this piloted concept for just six months. That's quite fast. How many different types of technology are you applying?

Thomas Müller: We had of course some pre-developing activities working on some of these technologies. But it was very very tough.

Actually you take a normal RS 7. So you use the engine, the steering system, the breaking. Then you put in a localisation system – because the car needs to know where it is – which is basically done by GPS and cameras. And then we took the same algorithm that we had in the car that we drove up the Pikes Peak three years ago autonomously but at low speed. It's a kind of path planner. You drive one lap on the left side of the lane; one on the right side. There are millions of possibilities to comb through and there is some intelligence behind that – assuming what is the best way to go through and at which speed.

And you have a lot of safety technology on board – two power supply systems, two breaking systems, redundancies. We have a radio control system taking care of the car. When we drive driverless we have spotters to switch off the car if we have someone running across the street. So a lot of safety things – to make sure that it works and that nothing happens.

Anna Winston: How long would it take to make a car that could drive autonomously on a real road?

Thomas Müller: If you're talking about cities, this is very complex. Cities will take many many years still to be able to do that.

If it's a city, we call it level four. To just get into your place, put on the navigation system – maybe sit in the rear seat and the thing is driving you to somewhere – this will still take 20 to 30 years.

But if you have simpler use cases like a traffic jam on a highway or parking, I think this could very well happen in this decade.

The biggest barrier in the end is that you have a mixture of non-intelligent and more intelligent cars. If every car was intelligent and every car was talking to each other and every car would be... like airplanes. They're all controlled by a system, and the human being is almost taken out of that system – he's just monitoring the whole thing. That would be much faster. People driving old cars in the middle of cars that are more intelligent and highly autonomous – this would be a mess. If you could manage that situation – I think this is one of the biggest challenges.

Anna Winston: What about off-road driving?

Thomas Müller: It's very difficult because one thing that we need to drive autonomously is lights. On a gravel road I don't reckon that you'll have lights. You have to make it recognise what is a street, what is not a street, and gravel and mud. This is actually something that human beings can do very well because you learn it. It's not because you're born with that knowledge.

You learn by driving what is a gravel road, where the borderline of a road is, and this is something that in the technical environment – self-learning machines – is still at the beginning. If you have algorithms that can learn as they go – robots or cars or whatever – then you could get a lot of what human beings have and then eventually, some day, gravel roads will also be possible.

Anna Winston: What is the point of projects like the Concept RS 7?

Thomas Müller: We focus on two things. First of all we have our pre-development activities that we want to take to serious production. One is, for instance, if you have to do an evasive steering manoeuver on the highway. You need to change lane very fast. Most people when they get into that situation – in front of a crash – they are so focused on the car still in front that they don't react. Most of them don't even push the brake, as they're shocked and they know they're probably about to have a really hard accident. This is something you need to do at the limit. So this is something that we’re working [on] also here. Planning, analysing, positioning – where am I? Do you have a clear lane?

These are use cases that we can take out from projects like this. The other one is marketing – showing competence, showing that we are ahead of piloted driving, and that we can manage these cars and that we're having fun with you.

Anna Winston: So there isn't a plan to go fully autonomous as a business strategy?

Thomas Müller: No. Not at all. We're not following a strategy of having – some people call it robotaxi – this car driving empty through the city looking for customers. This is not our strategic goal.

There are two kinds of cars. We have this kind of car that just takes you from A to B – which is unemotional. We want to have our cars be something very emotional. Se we need to have a very, very nice design.

People buy the cars because they look good. That's the first reason someone gets into a dealership. Then he makes his test drive. He needs to be integrated in that machine and he needs to feel it. He needs to have pleasure and say 'Yeah, that's me, this is part of my body'. Driving pleasure issues – this is something that we focus on. And on top of that comes driver assistance systems, piloted driving, which are the functionalities where we say we want to help the driver – to avoid accidents. We want to support him in situations where he doesn't have this pleasure of driving. Like traffic jams as I said, or parking in a parking spot in the morning. So if he wants to drive he will drive. If he wants to have the assistant helping him he will have the assistant helping him. But he's in command.

Anna Winston: In terms of legislation, how far away are we from being able to use a lot of this functionality on public roads?

Thomas Müller: A lot of activity is happening in Europe, happening in the US, some starting in China. In Japan this is also starting now. But it's still very regional, which makes it more difficult. Today you can test, but you cannot sell this technology. Even if it's just a traffic jam pilot or something like that, you cannot put it in a car because someone cannot buy it.

It's difficult to say when it's going to happen. I think it's feasible that it will happen in this decade. But one thing I think is clear: the US is ahead. And they didn't sign the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic from 1968, so they don’t have to wait for this to be changed. They can just start working on their laws, and they're doing that already. The US could be the first country where you could have the first piloted functionalities on the road. And I think the US has a huge potential – think about the highways. All of them doing 45-60 miles an hour.

Anna Winston: California is changing its regulations to insist that all vehicles have steering wheels and brake pedals.

Thomas Müller: They wanted to put a fleet of Google cars on the road without anything, and the [DMV] said 'no forget it'. It’s an evolutionary approach. It's not going to be that next Monday everything is there and is working, because technology needs to be developed, regulation needs to be developed, infrastructure needs to be developed. And the most important thing is the customer. My wife wouldn't get in a car that doesn't have anything. She doesn't trust it. You need to take the customer on that journey with you.

Anna Winston: And you’re working with architects and designers outside of Audi. What's the logic in that?

Thomas Müller: The logic in that is try to understand the urban mobility of tomorrow. Which includes, of course, the streets, but it also includes the parking areas. And to find out where we can generate some value.

Where do we have to focus on if we’re building this technology soon? Having the whole system of cars in this mixed scenario of intelligent and less intelligent cars working to increase the efficiency of the traffic – this would take some years.

But the area that you use today for parking – this, I think, is actually the biggest problem. Cities are reducing the parking areas and so we need to find a way to pack more together. If you could just drop your car at the entrance of a parking place and it just gets in and you pack all the cars together without any streets in-between, you would reduce the area which I think is a great thing.

]]>http://www.dezeen.com/2014/12/19/audi-engineer-thomas-muller-interview-concept-rs-7-driverless-car-cities-years-away/feed/8Audi's super-fast driverless car is fitted with a mini film studiohttp://www.dezeen.com/2014/12/15/audi-aj-bobby-super-fast-driverless-car-kram-weisshaar-camera-film-studio/
http://www.dezeen.com/2014/12/15/audi-aj-bobby-super-fast-driverless-car-kram-weisshaar-camera-film-studio/#commentsMon, 15 Dec 2014 18:11:27 +0000http://admin.dezeen.com/?p=610109Audi has teamed up with design studio Kram/Weisshaar to capture the "deathly fear" and "complete excitement" of passengers experiencing their first journey in a car that can drive itself at speeds of up to 220 kilometres per hour (+ slideshow). Stockholm-based Reed Kram and Munich designer Clemens Weisshaar worked with Audi's technical development department to create an in-car film studio […]

Audi has teamed up with design studio Kram/Weisshaar to capture the "deathly fear" and "complete excitement" of passengers experiencing their first journey in a car that can drive itself at speeds of up to 220 kilometres per hour (+ slideshow).

Stockholm-based Reed Kram and Munich designer Clemens Weisshaar worked with Audi's technical development department to create an in-car film studio consisting of seven high-definition cameras.

These were installed on the inside and outside of one of the car brand's driverless racing cars to collect rider reactions as well as give live feedback to passengers.

"Audi asked us to work on the human element of cars that can drive themselves," explained Kram. "There are many things that are exciting around cars that can drive themselves, but the idea we found fascinating was the thrill of it."

"The future isn't only about getting from A to B," he added. "New technologies and new teams working in new ways can also strive to make things that can give us pleasure – and in addition to become more efficient."

Audi's pair of 560-horsepower RS 7 autonomous vehicles were developed in just six months. Named AJ and Bobby after racing drivers A J Foyt and Bobby Unser, the cars were tested publicly for the first time at the Grand Prix track in Hockenheim, Germany, in October. One of the cars completed a full lap at 220 kilometres per hour while completely controlled by software.

Kram/Weisshaar were given eight weeks to install their Media Capture System, before 25 passengers – including musicians, film stars, artists and Dezeen – were invited to ride in the cars for the first time at the Ascari race track in Spain.

A seven-inch OLED screen set into a panel in front of the passenger seat showed a live visualisation of the G-forces being experienced by riders, using data collected and translated via an app developed by the design studio.

Two further screens showed live broadcasts of footage being collected by cameras in and around the car. Seven cameras were housed in cases made from aluminium milled using CNC machines, and fitted with Leica lenses and highly sensitive image sensors.

At the end of the experience, passengers were presented with personal movies of their ride, highlighting their responses to sharp corners and the moment that they were able to flick a switch to activate the car's software.

Kram said the range of expressions and emotions they had captured on film spanned from "deathly fear" to "complete excitement".

"Some screaming. One person did actually try to turn [the car] off," he added. "But for the most part, once everyone steps out of the car, it's real happiness. And not because they're happy they survived! Quite the opposite! They're thrilled with the experience."

An Audi engineer accompanied each passenger on their lap, sitting in the driving seat without touching the wheel.

Kram/Weishaar's media system is only installed in AJ, and the additional weight has changed the way the car responds. Audi described AJ as having a "more aggressive" driving style when self piloting.

As part of the project, Kram/Weisshaar also designed a mobile development laboratory using shipping containers, that houses an office and workshop for the engineers working on the autonomous cars.

Passenger G-force display

The cars will be tested further at a series of race courses around the world, and the lab will act as a travelling base for the engineering team led by Audi's head of driver assistance systems, Thomas Müller.

Müller explained that the cars were based on Audi's standard RS 7 model, but used a combination of location and imaging software to "learn" the the racetrack and determine the best route.

A military-grade Global Positioning System (GPS) is augmented with additional Wi-Fi location information. This is combined with photographic image location software that gathers pictures from on-board cameras and compares them to previous images taken at the same point on the track during previous circuits.

An algorithm first developed for use in an autonomous Audi in 2010, which successfully completed the Pikes Peak mountain climb course in Colorado, is also part of the system.

"You take a normal RS 7 – so you use the engine, the steering system, the breaking – then you put in a localisation system, because the car needs to know where it is, which is basically done by GPS and cameras," Thomas Müller, Audi's head of driver assistance systems, told Dezeen.

"Then we took the same algorithm that we had in the car that we drove up the Pikes Peak three years ago autonomously but at low speed. It's a kind of path planner. There are millions of possibilities to comb through and there is some intelligence behind that – assuming what is the best way to go through and at which speed."

The cars also have additional safety features, including a back-up power supply system, a secondary breaking mechanism and a radio control system that allows the engineers to manage them remotely.

Audi said that it did not intend to release fully driverless vehicles onto the market soon, but would use elements of the project to develop its standard designs for piloted driving in particular situations like parking or traffic jams.

"We're not following a strategy of having what some people call 'robotaxi'. This is not our strategic goal. We focus on building cars that look nice. We want to have cars be something very emotional," said Müller.

"On top of that then comes driver assistance systems, piloted driving – which are the functionalities where we say we want to help the driver – to avoid accidents. We want to support him in situations where he doesn't have this pleasure of driving. Like traffic jams, or parking in a parking spot in the morning. This kind of thing we are targeting."

]]>http://www.dezeen.com/2014/12/15/audi-aj-bobby-super-fast-driverless-car-kram-weisshaar-camera-film-studio/feed/2Audi showcases Prologue concept car in Miamihttp://www.dezeen.com/2014/12/03/audi-prologue-concept-car-design-miami-2014/
http://www.dezeen.com/2014/12/03/audi-prologue-concept-car-design-miami-2014/#commentsWed, 03 Dec 2014 20:00:00 +0000http://admin.dezeen.com/?p=606118Design Miami 2014: Audi's new head of design has created his first concept car for the brand, which is on display at this year's Design Miami event (+ movie). Featuring a flowing shape punctuated by defined lines and a spacious interior, the two-door Audi Prologue show car introduces a new design era for the German manufacturer […]

Design Miami 2014:Audi's new head of design has created his first concept car for the brand, which is on display at this year's Design Miami event (+ movie).

Featuring a flowing shape punctuated by defined lines and a spacious interior, the two-door Audi Prologue show car introduces a new design era for the German manufacturer under its recently appointed head of design, Marc Lichte.

The radiator grille has been widened from previous Audi models and integrates the brand's four-ringed emblem into the vehicle's structure, while high-resolution laser technology allows for the headlights to take a slender and wedge-shaped form.

Air intakes are positioned under the headlights and separated by a gap – a feature commonly found on sport vehicle designs – and the Prologue's side profile appears balanced equally between the front and rear, visually referencing Audi's Quattro drivetrain system.

"Audi stands for sportiness, lightweight design and the Quattro permanent all-wheel drive," explained Marc Lichte. "In the Audi Prologue, we are expressing this know-how in a new form – we have put the sportiest car in the luxury segment on wheels."

Small aluminium mirrors integrate open-door sensors, so the handleless doors open automatically when they sense someone approaching.

The vehicle's rear is dominated by LED brake lights, which run across the entire width of the car. Each light is housed behind a three-dimensional glass panel designed to exaggerate its appearance, improving safety by making the light appear to move towards the observer.

The Prologue's engine powers the vehicle from 0 to 100 kilometres per hour (62.1 miles per hour) in just 3.7 seconds and also features an "overboost" mode, offering more power to the driver for a maximum of 15 seconds.

Fuel consumption is kept efficient due to a new 48-volt subsystem – a technology that will soon be introduced to production cars at Audi – that utilises recovered energy captured as the vehicle brakes.

Inside, the vehicle's "butler" – a software program that identifies passengers based on their smartphones – welcomes them politely and adjusts seating preferences, climate-control settings and music accordingly.

Uninterrupted horizontal lines keep the interior space uncluttered visually, while also emphasising the width of the vehicle. The rear bucket seats are lowered when not in use and automatically extend when a passenger enters to allow for easy access.

A driver-orientated display used to control lighting and assistance systems is positioned to the left of the steering wheel, while another to the right of the steering wheel is dedicated to media controls.

A display in the front allows passengers to interact digitally with the driver for the first time in an Audi, enabling pre-configured directions and routes to be swiped over to the driver's display.

A fourth display, ergonomically adapted to the driver, is used for handwriting input and other vehicle settings. When not in use the display sits flush to the central console and is nearly invisible.

"When he moved to Audi, Marc Lichte launched a design offensive," says Ulrich Hackenberg, board member for development.

"His clear philosophy and precise understanding of Audi DNA let him develop a design strategy that is opening up entirely new perspectives for us. It is progressive and highly emotional; it expresses the technological competence and quality claim of the brand perfectly. The Audi Prologue is its first proponent – it is a 'signature car' for Audi."

]]>http://www.dezeen.com/2014/12/03/audi-prologue-concept-car-design-miami-2014/feed/4"Operating system for urban mobility" wins Audi Urban Future awardhttp://www.dezeen.com/2014/11/20/operating-system-for-urban-mobility-mexico-city-traffic-congestion-app-audi-urban-future-award/
http://www.dezeen.com/2014/11/20/operating-system-for-urban-mobility-mexico-city-traffic-congestion-app-audi-urban-future-award/#commentsThu, 20 Nov 2014 20:00:57 +0000http://admin.dezeen.com/?p=596245News: a team from Mexico City has won this year's Audi Urban Future award with a scheme that collects location data from commuters to identify problems in the city's congested road network (+ slideshow). The interdisciplinary team, headed by architect and city planner Jose Castillo, proposed an "operating system for urban mobility" to relieve the […]

News: a team from Mexico City has won this year's Audi Urban Future award with a scheme that collects location data from commuters to identify problems in the city's congested road network (+ slideshow).

The interdisciplinary team, headed by architect and city planner Jose Castillo, proposed an "operating system for urban mobility" to relieve the Mexican capital of its problems with traffic – beating groups from Berlin, Seoul and Boston to win the €100,000 (£80,000) prize awarded by German car brand Audi.

An estimated four million vehicles use Mexico City's road network, with the worst affected areas around the Santa Fe business district – where commuters face journeys of up to three hours to reach their workplaces.

"Our city needs an operating system to help people make informed decisions about their mobility choices and to support public officials and policy makers in finding long-term solutions for the megacity," said Castillo, who is also a professor at Harvard University. "Our proposal works in real time and is extremely low-cost."

The Mexico City team – which also includes data analyist Carlos Gershenson and the head of the city's Laboratory for the City, a creative think tank, Gabriella Gomez-Mont – came up with a project that relies on the collection of real-time traffic data from commuters, which they can use to assess congestion.

Drivers are asked to anonymously donate data about their location and movement using mobile devices, allowing other road users to identify weak points in the traffic network so they can avoid those spots, depart later or choose an alternative mode of transport.

The data is shared via a website and an app, which citizens and corporations voluntarily sign up to as a portal for automatically tracking or manually logging their movements.

Information collected is gradually built up to create an overview of the traffic problems, which will inform future urban and transportation planning.

Location-tracking apps such as Twitter and Foursquare are also used to gauge consenting user's mobility patterns over periods of time.

"We collected geo-located tweets, which gives an insight of where people who have been in Santa Fe also spend their time," said Gershenson.

The team has already collected over 14,000 sets of data, with companies including Audi, Apple,Microsoft,Uber,Yaxi and HP encouraging their employees to take part.

"The team from Mexico City has succeeded in collecting reliable data in a user-friendly way," said Annegret Maier, head of Data Intelligence at Audi. "On the basis of these data, in future we can develop tailor-made mobility services."

The collected data could help companies and independent initiatives to derive solutions such as fleet management and car-sharing schemes.

Although individuals are often wary of sharing their location data, the team believes that commuters will be willing to participate if it helps them avoid delays.

"In Mexico we see that people make sensitive mobility data available to the whole community if their individual benefit (less congestion, more leisure time) is greater than their concerns about protecting data," said the team. "The problem of permanent gridlock acts as a brake on a whole society."

Audi hopes that this information will inform the development of technologies such as its car-to-x system, which connects vehicles to the city's traffic control system and tells drivers what speed to move at to pass through the next set of green lights.

The Mexico City team believes the system of "data donors" could be used in other congested urban areas. Their project was announced as the Audi Urban Future winner at a ceremony in Berlin earlier this month, chosen by a nine-strong international jury.

"Ultimately we decided in favour of Mexico City because the project is already being implemented, and it provides concrete and above all affordable solutions for the urgent mobility problems in the mega-cities of threshold countries," said jury chair John Urry, director of the Centre for Mobilities Research at Lancaster University.

]]>http://www.dezeen.com/2014/11/20/operating-system-for-urban-mobility-mexico-city-traffic-congestion-app-audi-urban-future-award/feed/3Clemens Weisshaar and Reed Kram design car-sharing programme for Audihttp://www.dezeen.com/2014/11/12/kram-weisshaar-audi-unite-car-sharing-programme-stockholm/
http://www.dezeen.com/2014/11/12/kram-weisshaar-audi-unite-car-sharing-programme-stockholm/#commentsWed, 12 Nov 2014 10:52:26 +0000http://admin.dezeen.com/?p=588466Swedish German design firm Kram/Weisshaar has teamed up with car brand Audi to design and develop a "micro-sharing initiative" to encourage drivers in Stockholm to share their cars (+ slideshow). The design studio led by Munich-based Clemens Weisshaar and Stockholm-based Reed Kram has designed the Audi unite scheme to allow groups of up to five […]

The project, aimed at making car ownership more efficient, was initiated by Audi, who approached the studio in 2013 with a brief to "realise an entirely new model of micro-sharing" that would "reinvent the business model of car ownership".

"Developing a virtual product and process like unite involves financial product design, agressive iterative testing and development of hard- and software, user interface design, communication design, art direction of ad campaign and dissemination strategy and so on," explained Celemens Weisshaar. "We deliver all of the above turn keys to a corporation like Audi that benefits from an accelerated pace that is owed to orchestrating these things all in parallel."

The Audi unite micro-computer, beacon and app

Over the course of a year, the designers developed an app and a beacon system that allows groups of users to book access to a shared vehicle that recognises individual users.

As well as allowing users to reserve their car for specific periods, the Audi unite app displays the car's current location and fuel levels. A 24/7 hotline also provides emergency support via the app and a dedicated social chat platform allows each group of car sharers to communicate privately between themselves.

The Audi unite beacon

"Each unite member gets a personal Audi unite beacon, part of an in-car system that recognises when unite members are in the car, allowing for seamless processes and easy cost-sharing," said a statement from Kram/Weisshaar.

A micro-computer in a black case is hidden in the body of the car and connects remotely to each driver's "beacon" – a small round black tag that can be attached to a keyring – using Bluetooth technology. The tag contains a digital signature that is unique to each user and keeps a record of their car usage using data collected by the computer.

Each user receives a monthly bill for their portion of costs related to maintenance, cleaning, tyre replacement and insurance as well as their fuel usage and any congestion charges based on individual mileage.

Parts of the Audi unite beacon

The scheme is launching in Stockholm, following trials with a fleet of cars and 38 local drivers.

"Over the course of one year, Kram/Weisshaar and Audi engaged in the simultaneous design, prototyping and user-testing of increasingly refined microsharing prototypes in Stockholm itself," explained the studio.

"User experience was a central concern of Audi unite from the earliest creative briefs; initial prototypes were secretly tested with a fleet of 12 Audis on the streets of Stockholm."

Posters for Audi unite on Stockholm's underground system

The multi-disciplinary studio has also designed the media campaign and branding for the launch of the Audi unite programme, with billboards posted on Stockholm's Tunnelbanen underground transport system featuring portraits of the scheme's beta testers.

Digital car sharing has been growing in popularity, with existing services including the Uber taxi app, ride sharing system Lyft and car sharing service RelayRydes. These have predominantly been produced by technology startup companies, rather than design firms.

Kram/Weisshaar was approached by Audi because it could deliver both the hardware and software development as well as the more obvious design aspects of the products, branding and marketing, according to Weisshaar.

"At Kram/Weisshaar we have from the beginning on been designing as well as implementing multi modal projects – starting with the in-store technology for Prada's epicenter stores in 2001 where we not only designed but also produced and implemented hardware and software of the media elements," explained Weisshaar, whose co-founder Reed Kram was a founding member of the Aesthetics and Computation Group at the MIT Media Lab.

"Reed's MIT background also means that we have from the beginning been as much a tech company as a design firm and we are capable of iteratively developing integrated tech solutions along with the product and GUI [graphical user interface] design as well as the communication around the project," he added. "Some of these aspects we don't communicate in the design world because it tends to confuse people."